Aber Conference Round Up

The conference is, of course, much more than the main addresses in the Great Hall. We've mentioned the sort of mini conference that occurs over the weekend before. There was also a history trip on the Monday - to Bala this time. There are also open airs and prayer meetings.

There are also a large number of ancillary meetings for young people and others. My eldest son and daughter-in-law were involved in running the Extra Time (when they weren't working in the Christian bookshop by the chapel) which five young people up from Childs Hill were attending with others. My sister-in-law and her husband were involved in running the Time Out for 26-44 year olds (!). The young people also play football and netball on the Friday, which is good fun.

There were three seminars in the afternoons, Tuesday to Thursday. I missed Paul Mallard on suffering (which I have heard before) and David Jones on evangelistic preaching. On the Tuesday I went to hear P J Williams again who spoke (with helpful powerpoint) ostensibly on the KJV (pointing out that the letters J and V never appeared in the original along with more important matters too).  His real subject was again the reliability of Scripture, pointing out things such as Ussher's general accuracy. Good stuff. He answered the few questions at the end well too.

Then there was the missionary exhibition, which I managed to visit once, not getting all the way round. I did visit the LTS stand, of course, with Robert and Sarah Strivens, also those of WEST and Oak Hill too (Jonathan Stephen and Paul Woodbridge). Former Childs Hill member Paul Fountain was also there with his wife Ruth promoting Reformed Baptist work in Sri Lanka. There was also an inductive Bible study mission I'd never heard of called Precept ministries. It was a great joy to meet my fellow Cwmbranite Andy Lovell, retired missionary to Peru, and his wife Rachel, now promoting the work of Gospel for Asia. Paul Barns also spoke about the work in Nepal one night (India Link Ministries) and I had a nice chat to Mike Moore from CWI at one point.
Of course, besides all this there is the opportunity to meet up with friends old and new. It was great to see Benard and Linda Lewis, Derek and Rachel Sewell, Keith and Janice Hoare, Guy and Sarah Davies, Ian Middlemist, Kees Van Kralingen, etc, etc.